Switching speeds in double‐barrier resonant‐tunneling diode structures

Abstract

Switching speeds are calculated for GaAs‐AlGaAs resonant‐tunneling diode structures with different barrier widths from the time‐dependent Schrödinger equation. The speed is determined by monitoring the device current as the bias voltage is instantaneously switched. Effective mass discontinuities at the barrier and quantum well edges are included. Comparisons with previously published results using the wave packet approach are given. It is found that the turn‐off transient is dominated by the lifetime of the quasibound state; however, care must be used in calculating the lifetime.